Turnbull ahead as Abbott lags amid 'unfair' budget backlash

Malcolm Turnbull has surged ahead of Tony Abbott in the polls less than a month after dismissing rumours of a leadership challenge as “unhinged”.

Malcolm Turnbull has surged ahead of Tony Abbott in the polls (AAP)

• Labor ahead of Coalition in two party preferred, 53 per cent to 47 per cent
• Bill Shorten preferred Prime Minister at 47 per cent
• Malcolm Turnbull preferred Liberal leader at 40 per cent 

The latest Fairfax-Nielsen poll, published today, had the Communications Minister ahead of the current Prime Minister almost two-to-one as preferred Liberal leader at 40 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.

The results comes less than a month after Mr Turnbull made headlines for dining out with Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer and lashing out at conservative columnist Andrew Bolt.

The poll also saw an increase in support for the Coalition, up three per cent in two-party-preferred, but the party remained behind Labor, at 47 per cent to the Opposition’s 53 per cent.

The nationwide survey, quizzing of 1400 voters between last Thursday and Saturday, also rated the budget as overwhelming unfair.

Sixty-one per cent of respondents labelled the budget as unfair, almost twice the amount of voters who felt otherwise.

The poll also asked voters’ opinion on sending troops to Iraq, a move which 66 per cent of voters would oppose.

The poll results were published by Fairfax Media today.